Last Sunday was truly 2 remarkable dives on the Tweed River.

Now most uninformed people cringe when you tell them you dive the tweed river, their expecting conditions to be that like any other River and with nothing to see. I have always said there is always something different to be seen at the Tweed and last Sunday was just amazing.

Our first dive was a shore entry from the beach area, planning to drift along the wall, checking out the "nooks and crannies" and simply having a play. Well Visibility must have been close to 12 mtrs and an absolutely warm 20 degrees. On our walk to the shore we spotted our resident turtle on the surface and noted a large school of fish franticly breaking the surface. As we made our descent the waters opened up to a large school of winter whiting fossicking in the sand. During the dive we saw the usual attractions the tweed has to offer, the bath tub, the toilet, the mower, the shopping cart along with the marine life and our resident turtle came in to say hi. During the dive we happened to find some bottles, keeping the river clean is always important and cleaning off the barnacles always attracts loads of fish, huge bream will come in as soon as you start tapping the bottle.

Our plan for the Second Dive was to go further south, towards the hospital and an area which has been used as a dumping ground for old bottles. A nice, comfortable, cruisey
dive and with the visibility this good found us spread out and covering a large area. A small school of trevally was first noticed then a small group of pike fish, WHAT'S THIS; a huge Blotched Fantail Ray came from behind and glided by. As we stopped to watch this 2 mtr ray go past it turned around and came back to sit inches away from us, awesome. As we turned to head back to the shore off in the distance was an eagle ray searching around the rocks. We made it back to our exit point and everyone was excited about the excellent dive we just had.

After the dives we had the task of packing up and then deciding where to go for a bite and the pub is always a good option. Sitting around with a drink and a meal, the high from the dive continued with the general buzz around the table of what an excellent dive that was.

What a great way to spend a Sunday, a couple of dives, a beer and a meal sitting around and chatting on. Thanks to everyone for taking me diving, I enjoyed the day and hope you did too, Mick.